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Re:Completely Silent Computer by nwah1 on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @03:26PM (#17076973)
Sure, but most mobile OSes don't support a full desktop experience well, and you're limited to bluetooth peripherals only. Unless you have a rare phone that comes with a docking station.
Re:Completely Silent Computer by cestith on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @03:44PM (#17077155)
I have an OTG USB hub with Ethernet. Mouse, keyboard, and external drive can plug in all at once, and if I have a place to plug the other end of the cable I get wired network too. It even has power input to drive the peripherals. Add something like GNURoot with the Debian chroot and it's nearly desktop Linux on a tiny screen. It's more of a pain to set up during a meeting than a dedicated docking station would be. It also doesn't currently charge the phone (although there are ways to modify it to do that). It's nice for novelty but a little unwieldy. Using an OTG cable with a keyboard with a built-in hub reduces some of the cable clutter.

Some of the Chromebooks and such have no moving parts. I'm probably taking my Pinebook to the next conference I attend.

Re:Completely Silent Computer by chrisper on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @03:44PM (#17077169)
>Unless you have a rare phone that comes with a docking station.

Can't you just use any USB-C Dockingstation?

Re:Completely Silent Computer by snops on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @05:28PM (#17078012)
Not all phones support all the alternate modes of USB-C, especially display port or HDMI, so display output is often a hurdle.
Re:Completely Silent Computer by nwah1 on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @04:08PM (#17077409)
Good point. I guess few people use those since phone OSes don't scale well for desktop use.
Re:Completely Silent Computer by svnsets on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @04:26PM (#17077576)
The latest MacBook is essentially mobile hardware with desktop peripherals and software. Seems like the right way to go rather than bloating a smartphone with desktop software given that the amount of people who want their smartphone to be their only interface to everything is likely a very small minority.
Re:Completely Silent Computer by flukus on Tuesday May 15, 2018 @08:13PM (#17078989)
> Sure, but most mobile OSes don't support a full desktop experience well

This is due to the form factor, not the capability of the devices. A high end smart phone is more than capable of producing a good desktop experience.

Re:Completely Silent Computer by nwah1 on Wednesday May 16, 2018 @09:34AM (#17082220)
It's purely a software issue. Microsoft, Ubuntu, and others have come close to building a responsive desktop GUI.